Ara used the distraction to take her sword and cut through Edmund’s ropes, freeing his hands.
Audun yelled orders to his men. The wind didn’t touch him.
Ara grinned. “He’s mine.” Audun stood in the center of the room, the eye of a storm where everything was calm.
When he saw Ara approaching, he growled. “You!”
She flexed her fingers around the sword hilt. “You wondered who I am.” Her eyes flicked to Eirik, who’d asked the same question.
Because Ara was not the spy she’d played for years. She was so much more.
“My name is Ara Caron.” She stepped closer. “Bastard daughter of a Duke of Gaule. The once-general of the largest Gaulean force. I’ve fought in two wars, faced the greatest dark sorceress to ever live. There is magic in my blood.” She closed the remaining distance between them. “I am not the woman who warmed Lord Eirick’s bed. He warmed mine. Do you wish to fight me?”
“A woman?” he scoffed, fear shining in his eyes.
“Yes.” She lifted her sword. “A woman.”
She saw his attack before it happened. He yanked a knife from the belt at his waist and lunged for her. Ara sidestepped him easily, careful to avoid the force of Edmund’s wind that continued to keep Audun’s soldiers pinned to the walls.
She twisted on her heel to avoid another attack, kicking her leg out to drive him back. He stumbled away from her, and she readied to strike again. Audun would not leave this room alive.
“Ara,” Edmund called. “I can’t redirect it.”
She tried to figure out what Edmund meant, but it all cleared when she caught sight of one of Audun’s men advancing on Eirick. Edmund used all his strength to keep the rest of the men pinned to the walls. There was none left to protect the man she’d come to save.
Audun advanced, his knife held out in front of him. Ara batted it away, and he slammed into her arm, forcing her to drop her sword. She looked from the sword to the helpless Eirick and tore herself away from Audun, sprinting toward the bed and throwing her entire weight into the other warrior.
He went down hard, his head smashing into the bed frame. As she landed on top of him, he didn’t move.
“Ara!” Eirick called.
She rolled off the dead man and jumped to her feet, ignoring the pain in her side to face Audun once again. But as she whirled around, she didn’t see him.
Audun Orr had run.
Ara heaved a sigh and retrieved her sword. “Edmund, release them.”
Edmund’s magic receded as he pulled it back inside himself.
Audun’s warriors dropped to the floor before scrambling to their feet and out the door.
Ara closed her eyes for a brief moment before turning to the bed and sawing through Eirick’s ropes.
They were safe for now, but Audun Orr still lived, and he’d return.
FOUR
THERE WAS NO time to revel in the simple fact that they still lived. Once Ara freed Eirick of his bonds, she turned back to the table where Edmund sat slumped. Magic came at a cost. It drained the user, leaving them vulnerable.
“Come on, Edmund.” Ara pulled one of his arms over her shoulder and tried to hoist him from the chair. “We have to leave. He’ll be back.” With reinforcements. She looked back over her shoulder at the man who had yet to move from the bed. “Eirick, we have to go. Now!”
He shook his head. “I can’t leave.”
“No choice.” Edmund’s voice was weak.
Eirick stood and crossed the room to tower over them. “I am a warlord. I can’t just leave. These are my people.”
Ara’s face softened. “Not anymore.”
She saw it, the moment her words broke something inside him. His shoulders hunched forward and realization washed over his face. In a single day, he’d lost every bit of power he possessed.
But that was the thing. This couldn’t have happened over a single day. Audun must have courted Eirick’s people for weeks, months. He’d turned them little by little until the day came that their lord had to die.
That day was today.
His eyes scanned his home, a forlorn look on his face.
Ara dropped Edmund’s arm and reached for Eirick’s hand, threading her fingers through his. “Nowhere in Cana will be safe for you, not while you’re a threat to Audun’s newly-won power. He won’t stop until you’re dead.”
“I don’t have anywhere else to go.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “This place…it’s all I’ve known.”
She looked to Edmund, who nodded in agreement with the thoughts he